


Dance in the Dark

by ChibiEmme



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Catra (She-Ra) Is Bad at Feelings, Catra (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Catra is a stubborn bby, Catra is the Leader of the Crimson Waste, Childhood Trauma, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/F, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fix-It of Sorts, Friends to Lovers, Gang Violence, Gangs, Hangover, Hostage Situations, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Kidnapping, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Rescue Missions, Scorpia (She-Ra) is a Hugger, Scorpitra, Scorptra, Secret Crush, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Worth Issues, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, Sleeping Together, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Suicidal Thoughts, Temporarily Unrequited Love, all the gangs bow down to her and her scorpion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-07
Updated: 2019-08-07
Packaged: 2020-08-11 03:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20146957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibiEmme/pseuds/ChibiEmme
Summary: "'Or, you know, counterpoint, we don't go back at all.'Catra jumped ever so slightly at the taller's words, immediately letting her hand, which was gripped tightly to the Sword of Protection, fall limp at her side. She pivoted on the balls of her feet, the measly hairs on her tail straight up on their ends. Surely, Scorpia didn't mean what she had said; after all, the older woman frequently spoke a lot of nonsense. Yet, the scorpion stared back with a complete sort of sincerity Catra had only seen from her once before."__Or, in which Scorpia convinces Catra to remain in the Crimson Waste instead of returning to the Fright Zone.





	Dance in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Season three absolutely destroyed me, so this story is a fix-it fic of sorts that is going to erase everything that made me hate Catra (while still staying as true to her character as possible) and replacing it with lots of other canon-typical angst and a blossoming romance between our precious scorpion and her wildcat!
> 
> This chapter is super long (about 4245 words), and it is mostly a rewrite of the last five minutes of season three's third episode with a slightly extended ending and a peek into Catra's mind. I have already begun writing the second chapter, and that is truly where this story begins to diverge from the Canon.
> 
> So, yeah, enjoy! <3
> 
> \- Chibi
> 
> P.S. This fanfic is named after the song "Dance in the Dark" by Au/Ra. You'll see why eventually.

"Or, you know, counterpoint, we don't go back at all."

Catra jumped ever so slightly at the taller's words, immediately letting her hand, which was gripped tightly to the Sword of Protection, fall limp at her side. She pivoted on the balls of her feet, the measly hairs on her tail straight up on their ends. Surely, Scorpia didn't mean what she had said; after all, the older woman frequently spoke a lot of nonsense. Yet, the scorpion stared back with a complete sort of sincerity Catra had only seen from her once before.

"What? Why wouldn't we go back?" Catra implored, more confused than anything else.

Scorpia quickly took a step back, gazing at her wildcat with a slight blush on her face. Her eyes trailed to the side to avoid the impending gaze of her superior officer. "Uh, because you hate it there?"

The shorter woman blinked for a moment, tensing up in defense and baring her teeth as soon as the statement—well, it was more of a question—processed in her mind. "I don't. . ." she trailed off, her tough facade draining from her body as quickly as it had come about. Did she really hate it at the Fright Zone? Even she didn't know the answer, and the new interest her eyes had taken to the metal flooring of the ship didn't seem to give her any easy answers.

Scorpia's lips furrowed into a soft smile. "Hear me out, okay?"

The brunette shifted the sword in her grasp so that her arms were almost hugging it to her chest like a lifeline. The pressure against her body it provided made her anxiety boil down a bit. Her cat-like ears drooped as her eyes stared at the big pincers Scorpia held in front of her.

"Within, like, a day, you've defeated the gangs ruling the Crimson Waste and made yourself their leader," Scorpia started, slowly leaning down to match the shorter's height. "This is the happiest I've ever seen you!"

Scorpia placed her claw to Catra's hand where it lied on the sword, startling the cat-girl, as she continued:

"Scratch that: this is the first time I've ever seen you happy, period."

Catra felt warmth overflow to her cheeks. The scorpion was so close, enough so that their breaths intermingled in the small space between them. She smiled at Catra, a smile that for sure made the younger's face grow even redder than it already was before. The look was enough for Catra, once she could snap out of her daze, to look away in deep thought.

Even so, Scorpia was not done with her little speech. "So," she said, "why would we go back? Let's stay here! Forget Hordak; forget Adora; forget all of them. We could rule the Crimson Waste together, just the two of us. We could, you know, be happy." It was Scorpia's turn to get all red in the face, and her gaze fell on Catra, who had once again met the taller's eyes.

Catra's heart was thumping terribly fast in its chamber. Her body felt so warm and comfortable, yet she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by it all. She had never felt this way before, and that scared her. Was this feeling—this scary, new emotion that was set on stealing all of the control she had over her own self—the one true thing she had lacked all along?

_No, of course not, _she thought to herself. _Once I get back to Hordak, __I won't lack anything anymore._

Her breath hitched silently, and she found herself stuttering out fragments of sentences, little, itty-bitty pieces of some snide remark she could have made that had flown over her head too fast for her to comprehend it all; "I—I don't. . . ."

Catra felt her heart pounding, and she could feel every single beat shake her frozen body as she tore her gaze from Scorpia. The more she questioned the feeling, the more intense it got. Her organs had seemingly made a plot against her; it was obvious to her now that this emotion was set out to kill her and leave nothing but her thumping heart and rosy cheeks behind.

She wracked her mind for anything to say. She had to get away from the situation. Maybe if she left the situation, if she ran away like a coward, the agonizing pain would dissipate and she wouldn't be the total mess that she was in front of her underling.

So, she spat out the first excuse she could muster in the midst of all the thoughts racing through her mind: "I—I have to go check on the prisoner."

Catra never waited for a reply. The sword in one hand and her arm grasped in the other, she turned away and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Each step sent a pang of pins and needles throughout her body, her vision darkening ever so slightly in the tremendous heat of her body.

She was so focused on herself that she had just missed the dejected look that had overthrown Scorpia's soft demeanor as she left the taller in the vast, dark room of the ship, alone to her thoughts.

————————◾—————————

The automatic doors opened on the room Adora was being held captive inside. After searching throughout the entirety of the crashed ship, Catra had found that few rooms were still semi-functional. Some rooms, such as what was probably the old supply room that she decided to keep the hostage in, were completely trashed.

The room, at second glance, had looked as if it were struck by a natural disaster. The walls were dented outward, cracks and a purple discoloring that Catra could only assume was either rust or dried blood painted the once gray walls. Wires hung all about the room, some loosely hanging together and others torn to pieces and dangling from the ceiling. The red coloring on the metal flooring was chipped off, in some specific areas more so than others, leaving the room to be one of the cruddiest in the ship that was still secure enough to function as a contemporary holding unit for the time being.

It wasn't the decor of the room that had caught her eye, but the blonde teen that was tightly bound to a pillar in the right corner of the room. She was snarling, on her knees helplessly and frantically trying to lunge the top half of her body forward to stress the ropes enough to break free. Towering over her less than a foot away was one of the goonies that had joined Catra after she defeated Tung Lashor she hadn't bothered to learn the name of. She was a tall and slender figure, long boots that went over her thighs, covering the lavender of her legs. Her long tail and snout reminded the brunette of her old squadmate, Rogelio, and long hair in a dark shade of purple fell down her buff shoulders as she crossed her arms in an attempt to assert dominance over the struggling prisoner.

Adora didn't have to look at the door to know who her imposing visitor was. It had become second nature, or perhaps a sixth sense, for the girl to sense Catra's presence. Back at the Fright Zone, she had always used the instinct to find her best friend during the numerous times she went into hiding and was too stubborn to go to Adora for help herself. It was always Adora who made her feel like she was in control of her life, that she could truly be herself and openly say that the horrid abuse and turmoil she suffered would never last as long as it seemed. One day, they were going to rule the Fright Zone together, and that made her feel powerful and useful, the very adjectives that Shadow Weaver would always say she would never grow to become.

And, when Adora left her to become some pretty, pink princess, all the control she thought she once had seemed to slip from her grasp. She was unrightfully thrust into the role of a Force Captain, chasing after Adora like a doll, played with only for immediate pleasure, that would be cast away to a shelf once the prized doll of the menacing puppeteer was returned to her former glory and position.

But now, everything was different. Shadow Weaver, though still missing without a trace, was out of the picture, and Hordak had spared her sorry life on a whim, sending her on a solo mission to the desolate and so-called abandoned Crimson Waste to search for some First One's tech that Catra was convinced was never there in the first place. Yet, she had found something better during her time exploring the sand dunes along with Force Captain Scorpia. (Catra had no idea why she had tagged along in the first place, though she found it impossible to get a clear answer from the imbecile and had just given up on her relentless asking). She had found the crashed ship belonging to the old She-Ra of a thousand years prior, and she had learned that the very sword her ex-bestie wielded was the key to the entire planet.

Catra smirked to herself, the foreign emotion from before completely washed over by her favorite feeling in the entire universe: power. Finally, she had authority over Adora once again, and the blonde would never leave her for those sparkly bozos again. Once she returned to the Fright Zone, Hordak would see once again that she is useful, that he was wrong to suffocate her and chain her to the label of a traitor. For all she knew, she was smarter and an overall better leader than that shut-in.

Her body felt so light and uplifted at the pitiful sight before her. Power surged through her veins, tingling every fiber of her being. She couldn't wait to see the look of horror on Adora's face, on all of Etheria's face, when they all realized that they were dead wrong about her. And she couldn't wait to drag her sharp nails through Adora's pale cheeks, to etch the share of pain she deserved for turning her back on all she ever knew and leaving Catra with nothing but a hole torn through her heart.

At the door's closing, Adora shifted her gaze to her old friend, a few strands of her unkempt hair falling over her face as she lobbed her head to the side. "Catra," she shouted, "you can't do this!"

As if beckoned by her own name, Catra took as many steps as needed to close most of the space between her and the blonde, leaving her standing about a foot away from the honorary princess. 

"Well, hello to you, too," Catra said as she glared down at her prey, the sword slung over her shoulders. With a nod to the guard, she sent the slender woman on her way, leaving the two damaged girls alone together.

"What can't I do this time?" Catra proceeded, moving closer as if to close all but a fraction of the space between them.

"Hordak is trying to open a portal," She-Ra's alter ego spout out frantically, making it sound as if she had been waiting an eternity to say those very words to anyone who would listen. She was like a water spout, constantly spilling out more and more information until someone would turn her faucet off. "He wants to bring the rest of the Horde army through to Etheria. We can't let that happen."

Catra cocked an eyebrow. "The rest of the Horde army?"

"Hordak is part of a gigantic evil army from another world—"

Her words are cut short by a cocky laugh resounding from the cat-girl, who crouched down to Adora's level and placed the sword at her side. "Never a dull moment with you," she quipped. Her tail swished playfully behind her, though she knew full well that, as long as this war kept on, there would be no time for games.

"Why would I be against more Horde?" she continued. "That means we win and you lose."

Adora's eyes widened in horror at that statement. "We'll all lose if Hordak uses his portal machine!" she cried. "Light Hope and Mara both said that opening a portal will endanger everyone."

At that, Catra stood from her spot on the dirty, old floor, sword in tow, and paced further from the blonde. "You'll listen to anything weird, old holograms tell you, won't you?" Raising the sword higher, she began to admire the beauty of the runestone embedded in it and the shimmery gleam of the sword's form itself. She thought, though only for a moment, what it would be like to have a glamorous sword of her own. "You should really try to get over that."

"Besides," the brunette inquired, "how do you know about what Hordak's doing?"

"Shadow Weaver told me."

Catra's insides twisted, working against her more so than before. She lowered the sword, almost dropping it as she zoned out in confusion and anger. Yet, she didn't have to ask Adora what she meant by that, as Catra was clever enough to figure it out herself.

"We know all about Hordak's plans," Adora spat.

Catra's insides were burning with fury. She had been betrayed, yet again, by someone she sought love and attention from. It was weak, she knew, chasing after a mother figure she always wanted to confide in, and all she ever got in return was scoldings and too many bruises and wounds to count. Yet, not all of her body was burning her alive from the inside, seeking a flame to set them alight. It was small but prominent enough to overpower the anger fuming with each and every intake of breath she breathed. Part of her chest, only a small bit of it, was freezing cold, holding back a tidal wave of insecurities and pain she endured for so many years of her life as Shadow Weaver's play toy. She pushed it down, the fire in her body boiling the water threatening to burst from the very place she had hidden away those feelings for years.

She needed someone to love and confide in, and everyone she had ever trusted or tried to open up to had betrayed her. She just hoped by listening to what Adora was telling her, that maybe Shadow Weaver hadn't turned her back on the Horde and Catra and all of her bubbling fury was over nothing.

"Shadow Weaver told you?" she probed, her eyes narrowing to inspect the blonde for any hint of a lie or misconception. "How exactly did Shadow Weaver tell you this?"

"You didn't know?" Adora asked, surprised. Catra was fed up with all of the other's games, kneeling down to the girl once again, grabbing the collar of her red jacket forcefully, and demanding that she answer the question. Adora softened her expression ever so slightly and answered, "Catra, Shadow Weaver is in Bright Moon."

It was as if the dam holding her composure broke, and, the next thing the cat-girl knew, the fire had broken free from the internal cage she had placed around it, desperately taking over all of her body in anger the more and more she thought about the truth of the matter.

Catra was seething, and the small feeling of coldness in her chest was almost gone. It was a small candle in the midst of a tsunami, holding on to whatever fabrication of oxygen it could before it would be totally overruled by the will of fury.

The brunette lost all the strength in her grip and let go of Adora's jacket collar, staring blankly at the wall adjacent to her. Though, she wasn't seeing a wall. Instead, she saw Shadow Weaver, the older woman she attached herself to, helplessly waiting for the day she would be worthy in her eyes like Adora was; the one who berated her and punished her constantly for every little mistake, while the precious blonde had gotten everything handed to her.

"_Shadow Weaver left me for you. . . ._"

It was no secret that the old hag always played favorites, and Catra would never second guess her choice. Even though she vowed to raise both orphans, she always told the young teen that she was kept around only because Adora was fond of her. No hugs nor praise was ever given to her; all that she received was blow after blow after blow, an endless cycle of torment she could never escape.

Yet, she held on. To an outsider, it could have been seen as foolish to look for the approval of an abusive caretaker, but Shadow Weaver was the closest thing to a parent she ever had. She held on to a tiny sliver of hope that one day, the woman would see that she had the same amount of potential as Adora. She had grand things to offer to the Horde and, more importantly, the master sorcerer he once held as his second-in-command. Catra was a living being that Shadow Weaver could grow to love as well, and she was as good as, if not better than, her blonde counterpart.

But, no one ever seemed to see the truth. The one person she wanted to receive maternal love from had abandoned her, just like everyone else in her life. She tricked and manipulated her, then went running to her _precious _Adora. Because of this, Catra had lost everything: her position, her respect, her hard work, everything.

Most of all, she had lost all recollection of the love she once desired. What is the point of loving if all the other person will do is run away in the end? Moreover, if Shadow Weaver, the one who had raised her since she was an orphaned infant, couldn't love her, then who would?

Catra looked over to Adora, seething with a wave of anger more intense than anything she had ever felt in her entire life. She was looking straight through the ocean blue eyes of the object of her utter hatred.

"_All of this happened because of you._"

If not for Adora, she would have no one in her way: she could have been recognized for her greatness instead of lurking in the shadow of a spotlight she couldn't touch; she could have had everything she had ever wanted and more; she could have known what it was like to be favorited for _once _in her life; she wouldn't have been abandoned by everyone she cared about in her life. Most of all, she'd still be able to love and be loved.

But now, all that's left of her is a bitter husk. The fire had burned through all of her body, leaving nothing left but the cinders and ashes of her old intentions. It was all so clear to her now: Adora was the sole problem, and all problems must be eradicated.

And the only way she could think of to break Adora as terribly as she had broken Catra, to make her lose for once in her life, was to be an asset to Hordak and make sure he went through with the portal he and Entrapta were building.

The tiny bit of cold in her was almost gone, almost flickered out, but she could care less about the small piece of her that longed for such petty things like love and contentment. It made her weak. As far as she was concerned, she was stronger than she ever was before.

Adora must have seen the contempt in Catra's demeanor as she stalked away angrily with tears welling up in her multi-colored eyes. "Catra?" she called back, hoping to grasp whatever snippet of rationality the brunette still had and get her to see the reality of the situation. "Catra, please, you have to listen!"

She didn't care what the obnoxious problem had said to her. She would never listen even if the girl had tried harder to make her. Her chest ached as she stormed through the dark room that she and Scorpia had talked in before, growling as an outlet for the growing inferno inside of her. The tears in her eyes grew, and some of the hairs in her poofy mane stuck out like they always did when she felt this way.

Catra wasn't sure how long she had wandered aimlessly around the ship while her mind was swarming with too many thoughts to think clearly. Her ears were ringing, and she could hear someone talking to her, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. She could care less. All that mattered to her one-track mind was getting rid of the problem, and that's it.

"_Hey, Catra._"

Catra blinked suddenly, snapping back into reality and finding herself seconds away from colliding into Scorpia's broad chest. She must have made her way back to where her new gang of goons were partying and celebrating all the new loot they collected, along with Catra's success in taking over the Crimson Waste.

She looked up at the taller woman, feeling the tears prick at the sides of her eyes once more. There was something about Scorpia and her soft, gentle manner that soothed her in a way that nothing else could. Scorpia had somehow found a weakness in her, a breach in her sturdy walls, and she seemed to know how to evade Catra's inner mental walls and tear them down from the inside out unsuspectingly. She isn't sure how, but it had happened many times before. She knew the effect that Scorpia could have on her, yet she still kept her around. After all, she had her useful moments. (Catra would never admit that she enjoyed the scorpion's company in the slightest, but even her stubborn self could tell there was more than one reason she kept her around).

But Catra felt none of the kind smile the princess had plastered on her face at that moment, her emotions too extreme and her mindset too far gone to care. She was full of rage, and barely anything more.

"_Woah, there. Gotta be careful, boss."_

As the cheering and raising of glasses around her became more and more clear, Catra noticed how stiff she had become: a large contrast from her usual, relaxed self. She couldn't stop staring Scorpia in the eyes, even as Scorpia smiled fondly down upon her.

Finally, she was able to look around her. She gritted her teeth, wearing a look of annoyance on her face at the party-goers. She might have grown to love parties during her time in the Crimson Waste, but she couldn't help but feel that it was all too petty now. Why waste all this time doing nothing when she could be a thousand steps closer to defeating She-Ra and the Rebellion once and for all?

She found her glare falling to the floor, tears wetting her eyes and threatening to fall if she were weak enough to break. _I'm not going to break_, she told herself, though even she wasn't convinced herself.

Even someone as naive as Scorpia could put two and two together. It was obvious that Catra wasn't herself. She didn't look happy anymore; if anything, she looked afraid of her heavily glistening eyes and the tears she could see forming on the sides of her superior's eyes.

"Catra? You okay?" she asked, voice unsteady with concern.

When the brunette spoke, she gritted her teeth and seemed to growl in a very cat-like way that only a scared kitten could muster: "We are going back."

She looked up to lock eyes with Scorpia, no longer trying to hide the tears from her eyes. The taller failed to stifle a gasp when she saw the face Catra was wearing. She thought she had seen the scariest side of the teen when she was spouting insults like second nature and riding through terrible fits of anger, but she was dead wrong. For the first time ever, she saw Catra with the eyes of not the misunderstood cat-girl she knew, but with the eyes of someone ready to commit a murder in cold blood. She would never admit that the girl she had been crushing on ever since their first adventure together on a boat to Sealineas scared her, but the look on her face chilled the taller to the bone.

"We are going to open a portal," Catra continued, her eyebrows furrowing downward, closing in on her eyes to complete her look of ferociousness. "And we are going to crush them all."

Scorpia knew then that someone had hurt her, and they had hurt her terribly bad. She was suddenly filled with determination to find out who it was and how before she let her wildcat step even a foot outside of the spaceship.

Before she could press the smaller any further, Catra swiftly wiped the nuisance tears from her eyes and barked her orders. "We leave tomorrow. Tell everyone who wants to come to pack their bags. The rest can stay here, I guess."

"Catra—"

Catra's eyes narrowed threateningly. "You have your orders." She then turned on her heel, taking a few steps forward before abruptly stopping. She quickly muttered, "I'm going to bed," then stalked off the way she had come before the older woman could protest her decision.

**Author's Note:**

> So, what do you all think of this new story? The plot is still under major development, so I would like to know what you think so far. (Not much to talk about for this chapter though, since this is a rewrite of a Canonical episode). I am totally open to any constructive criticism you may have!
> 
> I'm not sure when the next chapter will be since it's also long like this one (I doubt it will be THIS long, though) and I will be starting school up again in a week or so, so please be patient with me!
> 
> Thank you all for reading! Have a wonderful day/night! <3
> 
> \- Chibi


End file.
